Legal Cure : Doctors’ Malpractice Hot Line Draws Lawyers’ Ire

Local lawyers have struck back at the Los Angeles County Medical Assn. for touting a computer service that identifies patients who have filed medical malpractice lawsuits.

The Los Angeles Trial Lawyers Assn. board has voted to set up a telephone hot line to inform prospective patients of how many times their doctors have been sued for malpractice.

The medical association recommended last week that doctors protect themselves against “litigation-prone” patients by subscribing to Physician’s Alert, a private computerized service that charges a $10 fee to tell a doctor whether his patient has repeatedly sued physicians.

Two days later, admittedly in retaliation for the doctors’ action, the lawyers’ board planned the hot-line service for medical consumers.

‘Decision . . . Outrageous’

“The doctors’ decision to intimidate members of the public just because they had filed lawsuits in the past seems just outrageous,” said Dr. Samuel Shore, a former surgeon who practices law and specializes in malpractice cases. “The Hippocratic oath says nothing about treating only people who have not filed lawsuits.”

In criticizing the lawyers’ action Tuesday, however, Dr. Mitchell S. Karlan, a Beverly Hills cancer surgeon and president of the Los Angeles County Medical Assn., denied that doctors will shun patients who have sued.

“We are not turning patients away,” Karlan said. “We are not blacklisting them.”

Shore, a past president of the lawyers’ association and a board member who is chairman of the group’s malpractice committee, said several consumer groups will join the lawyers in sponsoring the information service. He declined to identify those groups, noting that their boards have not yet approved the project.

Shore said any patient contemplating surgery or other medical treatment will be able to call the hot line and, for a “nominal fee,” expected to be less than $5, learn how many suits have been filed against his doctor.

Information Free at Courthouse

The information will be gleaned from the Los Angeles County Superior Court’s computerized index, which the public can peruse--free--at the County Courthouse. Shore said the service will mail a printout of the list of suits against a specified doctor to the caller within the day.

Although the public could research the information on its own, Shore said, few people know how or where to do it. Given the index information of a case number, the date of a suit and the name of the person who sued the doctor, Shore said, the patient can go to the courthouse and ask to see the court file if he wants more information.

Shore said the hot line will also provide information about a doctor’s qualifications, which will be obtained from the Los Angeles County Medical Assn. and the state Board of Medical Quality Assurance.

Asked whether the lawyers think that their service might prompt more medical malpractice work for them, Shore said:

“If this service works, there will be fewer malpractice cases--which we would love. If a doctor has 80 or 90 suits against him, a patient may be reluctant to let him operate. So we avoid a potential suit there.”

‘Muddying the Waters’

Karlan countered that the lawyers are “muddying the waters” with their proposed hot line for patients.

“The attorneys have completely tried to dupe the public into believing if a doctor has one to three malpractice suits, he is a bad physician,” Karlan said. “But one out of five doctors will have a malpractice suit. The best physicians with the most training, the most highly skilled ones who get referrals on problem cases, have the most exposure.”

Karlan, who said he has been sued twice but “never lost a case,” estimated that 80% of malpractice cases are frivolous.

Physician’s Alert, the 2-year-old Chicago-based computerized research company recommended to doctors by the medical association, predicted last week that up to 2,000 of Los Angeles County’s 20,000 licensed physicians will subscribe.